Climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer stood along the Hudson River and watched his research come to life as Hurricane Sandy blew through New York.

--snip--

Sandy took an unprecedented sharp left turn into New Jersey. Usually storms keep heading north and turn east harmlessly out to sea. But a strong ridge of high pressure centred over Greenland blocked Sandy from going north or east, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University, an expert in how a warming Arctic affects extreme weather patterns, said recent warming in the Arctic may have played a role in enlarging or prolonging that high pressure area. But she cautioned it's not clear whether the warming really had that influence on Sandy.

It's a bunch of nonsense. Andy Parks at the Washington Times did some research today and found that since the eighteenth century, 84 hurricanes had struck New York, with the worst probably being in 1938.

I remember a hurricane pattern study from several years ago. The gist of it was hurricanes have strike patterns that go through cycles of 50 years or so. We have been in a Gulf strike cycle for about that time and are (as per the study) entering an Atlantic seaboard strike cycle.

If this is what is happening the AGW folks will get absolutely rabid after several good whollops to the mid and upper atlantic coast.

True, the low pressure was another big factor. Lots of variables came together just right to cause this, none of which can be attributed to AGW or climate change... Another interesting feature was the way the jet stream sucked Sandy into shore when it got east of NJ, just accelerated it’s landfall, which had to pack part of the punch as well... Landfall was predicted around 8pm, but then it just accelerated, was interesting to watch the radar/satellite loops...

Being in Delaware, the one true case of a hurricane hitting my area was Isabel in 2003. This was the case in my lifetime where a hurricane, or rather a tropical storm, showed winds of over 50 mph. In terms of flooding, that would have been Floyd in 1999, however, every storm since then we’ve upgraded the dams and sluice gates so that the flooding doesn’t happen again.

Being in Delaware, the one true case of a hurricane hitting my area was Isabel in 2003. This was the case in my lifetime where a hurricane, or rather a tropical storm, showed winds of over 50 mph. In terms of flooding, that would have been Floyd in 1999, however, every storm since then we’ve upgraded the dams and sluice gates so that the flooding doesn’t happen again.

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